Netflix read the ‘straight pride’ organizers for filth over using their logo

Netflix had an amazing response to the organizers of the Straight Pride Parade who were insinuating that they had corporate sponsors.

Super Happy Fun America (SHFA) is organizing a Straight Pride Parade in Boston for this coming August. The organizers have ties to white supremacy.

On their website, they wrote a post about “Prospective corporate sponsors,” which included the logos of a bunch of major corporations. This did not make those corporations happy, and Netflix had a great way of telling them.

“You should know that we’re unafraid of bullies. Our legal department is here, it’s queer, and it’s telling you to steer clear,” Netflix’s IP Department wrote in an email to SHFA’s leadership.

“You are using the Netflix logo to promote your event, which despite its name is about hate–not pride. That’s gross and deeply hurtful, but it’s also deceptive misinformation and infringes our legal rights.”

“Netflix has nothing to do with your organization or event. Indeed, it’s telling that you feel the need to lie to gain legitimacy,” the company’s lawyers wrote.

Netflix gave SHFA 24 hours to remove its logo from their website.

SHFA responded on their blog with one of their trademark whines.

“Sadly, we have learned that Netflix is a heterophobic company steeped in hatred and bigotry,” they wrote.

“They not only rejected our offer but threatened us with litigation if we did not stop using their name and logo, which is perfectly legal for editorial or informational purposes.”

They also said that Netflix’s legal department “is staffed by gay supremacists who are so accustomed to privilege that our goal of equality for straights feels like oppression to them.” Which is ironic, since the entire point of “Straight Pride” is that straight people are so accustomed to privilege that LGBTQ people asking for things like “don’t kill us,” “don’t fire us,” and “let us have equal rights” feels like oppression to them.

While SHFA technically said that none of the corporations had sponsored them yet, using the logo under the words “corporate sponsors” (with or without the word “prospective”) is obviously going to annoy brand-conscious companies.

And they got off easy with Netflix, which just sent them a snarky email and asked them to remove their logo. JP Morgan Chase, the investment bank, attacked their website.

According to SHFA’s blog, on July 10 their web host, Bluehost, told them that JP Morgan Chase filed a trademark infringement claim against the SHFA website.

After they responded that they have a legal right to use a corporation’s logo for “informational purposes,” Bluehost suspended their site. They have since found a new web host “that respects free speech.”

source